There are a wide variety of sharpeners for slicer blades. Most of these are permanently mounted on the food slicer and are easily activated when the slicer blade becomes dull from use and needs sharpening.
The sharpeners now available are in general designed to be dedicated to a particular slicer with a particular blade size. Virtually all commercially available sharpeners are designed to sharpen only fine edge blades and they are not recommended for or used for serrated blades. Many of the modern slicers, particularly for home use, use serrated blades because they are more efficient and require less power for cutting than the fine edge blades. Generally serrated blades must be sharpened by hand. Fine edge blades when dulled are not as effective as serrated blades. However, both types of blades are used on modern slicers and hence a sharpener should ideally be able to sharpen either type of blade.
There is a need for a sharpener that can be used on a wide variety of food slicers made by different manufacturers. None of the existing sharpeners are versatile enough to accommodate the wide variety of blade sizes and the design of various food carriages that are provided to advance the food into the blade. Existing food slicers are sold with a wide range of blade diameters ranging from about 6″ to 12″ for the home and with much larger blades if sold for commercial purposes.